Musk Thistle And Bumble Bee In The Wasatch Mountains
This morning, I'm sharing a simple image of a Musk Thistle and a bumblebee that I photographed two days ago in the high country of the Wasatch Mountains.
This morning, I'm sharing a simple image of a Musk Thistle and a bumblebee that I photographed two days ago in the high country of the Wasatch Mountains.
Right after I photographed a juvenile Lazuli Bunting two days ago a female American Goldfinch landed in a patch of thistles in front of me.
I wanted to share some of the wildflowers I photographed in the first part of July that I have found in Summit and Morgan Counties high in the Wasatch Mountains.
This is a female Great Spangled Fritillary, a butterfly species that can be abundant in the Wasatch Mountains at this time of the year.
Yesterday morning I was high in the Wasatch Mountains photographing bees on a Musk Thistle when a Pine Siskin landed on the flower.
Last week I had a blast photographing several Yellow Warblers, young and adults, foraging for aphids in a patch of thistles high up in the Wasatch Mountains.
Two days ago the first bird I photographed high in the mountains was an adult male American Goldfinch clinging to thistles that were covered in ants and aphids.
Last year I saw an abundance of Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies in the Wasatch Mountains, it seemed that I could easily spot them flitting about or nectaring on thistles but this year I noticed that these and the numbers of other species of butterflies are way down in numbers
I had fun yesterday photographing a few chipmunks up in the Wasatch Mountains including this chippy performing acrobatics while trying to get to thistle seeds.
One year ago today I went up into the Wasatch Mountains and for about three minutes I photographed a molting American Goldfinch feasting on Musk Thistle seeds.
I kept my focus on this male American Goldfinch and when he lifted off I was able to take a photo with his wings raised just as he started to take flight.
Last year I was able to take hundreds of photos of this male American Goldfinch in breeding plumage while he fed on the seeds of a Musk Thistle.
I'm not sure I have ever been as close to a Pine Siskin as I was to this one before, I'm glad this siskin decided to delight me with its presence even though it was just for a very brief time.
When the female American Goldfinch lifted off I liked the eye contact I had with her and how graceful she looked when she raised her wings, when I saw this image on my camera LCD I just had to smile.
I am always glad when a bird unexpectedly flies in so that I can take close up photos because close ups show so much fine detail in their plumage and that is what happened earlier this week with a Pine Siskin.
Last week while I was up in a canyon in the Wasatch Mountains I spotted a female Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly nectaring on a Musk Thistle so I felt I had to take photos of she sipped the nectar of the flower.
Today I am keeping it short and sweet and sharing one photo of a male American Goldfinch perched on a dried Musk Thistle blossom plus a short video clip I took of him as he lifted off and flew away.
I'm going to ask for help later on today from bugguide.net with the identification of this fritillary butterfly. I don't normally have to ask for identification assistance but I need it for this other thing with wings.
A flash of yellow, black and white on a purple flower immediately drew my eyes to a male American Goldfinch feasting on the seeds of a Musk Thistle so I stopped, turned my Jeep off and proceeded to photograph the bird.